Bengaluru to get 1,000 bicycle parking hubs in phases

BENGALURU: Determined to give a push to cycling as a sustainable transport alternative, the state government has decided to build 1,000 bicycle parking hubs in Bengaluru city. At the first general council meeting of Karnataka non-motorised transport agency held last month under the chairmanship of urban development department's additional chief secretary Mahendra Jain, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was asked to provide more cycle-parking slots in the city. The department of urban land transport has said the parking hubs will come up along Outer Ring Road, Jayanagar and Malleswaram. The council also decided to expand the public bicycle sharing system and directed that phase-wise tenders be floated for construction of parking hubs. The council also decided to provide space for parking e-vehicles, along with bicycles in the parking hubs. The directorate of urban land transport's (DULT) special officer maintained that two vendors have submitted a proposal to use the bicycle-parking hubs for e-vehicles. Space for e-vehicles too Jain proposed that a certain percentage of space in the cycle-parking hubs be used for e-vehicles. However, he made it clear that parking of bicycles should be prioritised.

It was decided that space allocation for e-vehicles in the parking hubs or providing separate parking slots for e-vehicles has to be analysed in detail and placed before the council for suitable decision. Meanwhile, BBMP's road infrastructure wing's chief engineer S Somashekhar said tenders had been floated for construction of 271 bicycle-parking hubs and the bidders had quoted Rs 8.4 crore to take up works. The council accorded the approval for the tender, subject to certain conditions.